THE BIGGEST strike in the history of the NHS takes place today with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) escalating its action, as members at 73 NHS trusts in England come out on strike, compared to 44 in December and 55 last month.
Alongside members of the RCN, call handlers, paramedics and other ambulance staff members of the GMB and Unite are also on strike today.
Tory Prime Minister Sunak was accused of ‘hiding’ from public service workers by the leaders of both the RCN and Unite yesterday.
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: ‘Rishi Sunak has no place left to hide. His unwillingness to help nursing is being exposed as a personal choice, not an economic necessity.’
Researchers at London Economics, commissioned by the RCN, looked at the pay awards that NHS Agenda for Change nursing staff have been given in the UK since 2010. They found that in real terms, the salary of an experienced nurse has fallen by 20% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 16% in Scotland.
Appearing on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg Show yesterday morning, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘Where is Rishi Sunak, why is he not at the negotiating table?
‘I’ve just heard the interview with Grant Shapps (Tory Business Secretary) and on the eve of the biggest NHS strike in history he’s got absolutely nothing to say about it.’
Kuenssberg said that Shapps had said that by striking the health unions are putting people’s lives at risk, to which Graham replied: ‘This government is putting lives at risk. Let me just give you a statistic. 500 people are dying every single week waiting for an ambulance.
‘What we are trying to do is, yes, get pay of course, because we need to solve the workforce crisis, but we’re also trying to make sure that patients are a lot safer than what they are.
‘It’s almost like there is a strike in the NHS every single day. We’ve got 130,000 vacancies, so we’re doing our very best to solve this dispute, but it’s going to take more than that, it’s going to take investment in the NHS also.’
She added: ‘What we are doing is of course we are making things as safe as possible. But on a daily basis this government is putting people’s lives at risk. We’ve got 500 people dying in a single week just waiting for ambulances.
‘They need to come to the table, where is Rishi Sunak? This is either because this man is out of his depth, he doesn’t know what he’s doing or there is a much more sinister reason as to why they are doing this to the NHS.
‘In 30 years of negotiating I’ve never seen such an abdication of responsibility in my entire life.’
Kuenssberg said: ‘Health Secretary Stephen Barclay has said that there are negotiations going on. Is he not telling the truth?’
Graham replied: ‘He’s not telling the truth I can tell you categorically that there have been no conversations on pay whatsoever with Rishi Sunak or Steven Barclay about this dispute in any way, shape or form.
‘They dance round their handbags, dance round the edges, but they will not talk about pay. For me that is an abdication of responsibility. The dispute is about pay. so how can they say they are in talks. Talks about what? What are they in talks about?’
Kuenssberg said: ‘Are you telling our audience this morning that on the eve of the biggest health strike in history there is zero conversation between anyone in your union and anyone at all speaking for the government?’
Graham replied: ‘I can absolutely categorically tell you that. I was with the general secretaries one week, in fact we were watching your programme one morning thinking, “have we all missed an email, what talks are they talking about?”
‘I can categorically say to you we are in no talks at any level whatsoever with the government about pay in the NHS.’
